Meet the Board of Directors

Alexandra Hagerty, Captain, U.S. Merchant Marine, is Master with American Maritime Officers Union. She is a founding member of the Nautical Institute’s Younger Members Council, Vice President of International Relations with the Council of American Masters, and their US representative with the International Federation of Shipmasters Associations, an NGO at the International Maritime Organization. 

Captain Hagerty maintains notable memberships and fellowships with The Aspen Institute, the Council of American Master Mariners, The Nautical Institute, and the International Propeller Club of the United States. She holds an M.S. in International Transportation Management from SUNY Maritime College and an M.A. in Cognitive Semiotics from Aarhus University of Denmark, with fluency in five languages. She is a maritime expert witness, panelist, mentor and Captain on the hospital ship Africa Mercy with Mercy Ships starting December.  She started a non-profit Captains Without Borders.

Captain Hagerty is proud to encourage young people across globe into pursuing a career at sea and mentoring them. She realizes that a seagoing career opens doors to a plethora of opportunities  including speaking, writing and being involved in professional organizations. She presented a paper with USCG Commander (Rtd) Camilla Bosanquet at IFSMA-IMO Biennial AGM on “Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Women on Ships & Ashore ». She is proud to watch cadets she mentored pursuing career paths at sea and in the boardroom. She recently served as Captain aboard the Hospital Ship Africa Mercy navigating her from Spain to Senegal to provide life changing surgeries. She is currently in the executive MBA program at MIT. 

Captain Jaquelyn Burton is currently heading the Creative Design Department at Kongsberg Maritime. She has over a decade of practical operations experience at sea on merchant ships and LNG FSRU’s, is a Maritime Operations and Technology graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy and  holds an Unlimited Master Mariners  License from the U.S. Coast Guard. She graduated with honours from the pioneer EMBA class at the Quantic School of Business and Technology. 

Currently she is on the Nautical Institute’s Automation Technical Advisory Group (ATAG), the Local Leader for the Interaction Design Foundation’s Oslo Chapter, Deputy Member of the Board, Women’s International Shipping and Trading Association (WISTA Norway) Norway , a SINTEF Forum participant for Human Factors in Control, and part of the Society of International Gas Tanker and Terminal Operators Human Element Committee working group on Cargo Control Room Ergonomics.

She also mentors’ women entering the Offshore and Maritime Industries through Women Offshore and for the TechStars Energy Accelerator for early-stage energy start-ups.

She was named one of the 18 Women Reshaping the Future of Ocean Industries by Nautix Technologies in 2020 and named one of the 10 Women to Watch in the Maritime Industry for 2019 at Nor-Shipping by YoungShip, and is a Recipient of a WaveMaker Award at the Women Offshore at the 2019 Unite Conference.

A transplanted Canadian, now living in Australia, Jillian has almost four decades of experience in the maritime industry.   She has experience both afloat and ashore, she has management experience in different government areas, including aids to navigation (AtoN), Vessel Traffic Services (VTS), shore station radio operations, regulation of maritime pilots, vessel tracking and maritime technology related fields. 

She is passionate about diversity, equity and inclusion, with a focus on the maritime industry.  She is promoting psychological safety in the industry, working with the Centre for Ocean Policy and Economics (COPE), hosted by the Northeast Maritime Institute.   Jillian continues to work on matters related to the digitalisation of the maritime industry, risk assessment and mitigation, and maritime education and training.  She is a Director of GlobalMET, an adjunct senior researcher with the University of Tasmania (Australian Maritime College) and a Board member of Captains without Borders.  

An active member of several international Committee’s, Jillian currently chairs or participates on a number of committees and panels.  Jillian’s expertise in navigation, education, vessel tracking, and maritime radio communication technology has been recognised by the award of Fellowships with both the Royal Institute of Navigation and the Nautical Institute.  Jillian is the immediate Past President of the Nautical Institute (International) and an active member of the NI South East Australia branch.  She was the winner of the 2021 Safet4Sea Personality of the year award, was awarded the MaritimeSheEO Champion in Diversity (Individual) award in 2021 and was inaugurated into the Australian Maritime Hall of Fame in February 2022. 

Bryan Hoffmann graduated from the United States Merchant Marine Academy in 1997 where he majored in ABET accredited Marine Engineering Systems.  He was commissioned in the US Navy and has been promoted to Captain.  His most recent Navy orders had him supporting shipyard availabilities and ship repairs at various bases around the world.  When not at sea or in a shipyard, CAPT Hoffmann mentors junior officers as they come up through the ranks.

Mr. Hoffmann presently sails as Chief Engineer on Military Sealift Command contract vessels in support of the United States Navy and Marine Corps.  He holds US Coast Guard unlimited horsepower licenses in all engineering disciplines: motor, gas turbine and steam.

He previously worked as a system engineer at FPL’s St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant in Ft. Pierce, FL and at FPL Energy as a co-generation power plant engineer in Juno Beach, FL.

Lieutenant commander James Losee currently is on active duty in the United States Navy, working directly for the United States Transportation Command Deputy Commander. Previously he has been Officer in Charge of his unit, mentoring younger officers as they navigate their careers. He has served on a warship in the Persian Gulf and at various other sea and shore commands in the US and abroad. 

In civilian life he holds and Unlimited Tonnage Masters License and works on commercial ships in support of the US Department of Defense. In over a decade of going to sea he has worked on vessels ranging from commercial cargo ships to Special Mission ships for the US Navy and Missile Defense Agency. 

Capt Losee also worked several years in the shoreside maritime industry as a bunker trader for one of the largest bunker trading houses in the world. While there, he specialized in highly technical, special projects that pulled upon his sea and Navy experience. 

Capt Losee is a 2009 graduate of the United States Merchant Marine Academy where he majored in Marine Operations and Technology and was a captain on the sailing team.

Brian Bayliss grew up in south Louisiana along the banks of the Mississippi River with strong familial ties to the maritime industry. While pursuing his undergraduate degree he worked as a paramedic for New Orleans EMS. He has worked as a paramedic through numerous hurricanes and other large-scale events such as Mardi Gras.
Brian earned his Master’s in Public Health from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. His research included mental health in EMTs and establishing state-wide EMS protocols. Brian also has earned his Master’s in Maritime Business Administration and Logistics and Third Mates License at Texas A&M University.  

John Wilson is a 2000 graduate of the Virginia Military Institute where he majored in International Studies. After graduation, he immediately commissioned in the United State Navy as a Surface Warfare Officer. He served as the Damage Control Assistant and Officer of the Deck on the minesweeper USS Avenger.  His second tour was as a Navigator upon the USS Denver. His final, shore tour was with NORAD inside of Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado where he was a watch officer in the Command Center as an Air Battle Management Officer.

He later received his Juris Doctor from the Regent University School of Law where he served on the Alternative Dispute Resolution team. His legal experiences include criminal litigation, civil litigation, insurance defense, real estate, and labor law.

Residing in Virginia Beach, Va, he enjoys the company of this five, teenage children.  

John is excited to join the experienced team of Captains without Borders and help in Mercy Ships’ mission of bringing health care to underserved and in-need communities.